The gap in the Tax Gap
Quietly buried in HMRC spreadsheets released today is the news that the UK Tax Gap is consistently much bigger than HMRC previously said. New evidence suggests that the government may be under-estimating by several billion pounds the amount of income hidden offshore, and non-compliance amongst the largest and wealthiest taxpayers.
Donald Trump claims the UK’s Digital Services Tax overwhelmingly targets US tech giants. New data obtained by TaxWatch shows otherwise.
From the White House to the tech sector, the UK’s Digital Services Tax has been described as a discriminatory ‘tariff’ almost entirely targeting large US internet companies. New statistics show that’s not quite true.
Anything to declare? HMRC slips out new R&D relief disclosure facility on New Year’s Eve…
Businesses who overclaimed R&D tax relief invited to disclose and repay with HMRC’s new disclosure facility, although it might not prove as popular as the Government hopes
New statistics show £300m lost to offshore tax gap on over 7million accounts held overseas likely to be gross underestimate
HMRC’s first estimate of the offshore tax gap for 2018, seems a wild underestimate at just £300 million based on questionable methodological choices.
New statistics show HMRC’s clampdown on R&D claims beginning to take effect
Latest HMRC figures show the cost of R&D relief claims increasing but in relation to fewer claims being made for 2022-23. This implies HMRC’s compliance changes are discouraging claims that are less likely to be qualifying, especially those of lower value or in particular sectors.
Unveiling the latest Box office smash hit: Creative industry tax relief reach record highs
Record levels of tax relief claimed by the creative industries sector in 2023. The reliefs are now dominated by fewer, extremely large, claims for film and ‘high-end’ TV programmes. TaxWatch questions whether these reliefs offer good value for money given the profitability of expensive productions in light of changes to the Audio Visual Expenditure Credit.
The SME R&D tax relief scheme: lessons in how not to implement a tax relief
Once again, the National Audit Office qualified HMRC’s accounts due to a “material level of error and fraud in Corporation Tax research and development reliefs”. Whilst the good news is that the estimated error rate within the relief is coming down it remains unacceptably high. It has taken years for HMRC to admit there were problems, despite plenty of warnings, and action has been too slow to avoid the situation getting totally out of hand.
TaxWatch’s summary of the UK General Election party manifestos
TaxWatch reflects on the party manifestos for the upcoming General Election
The uncertain future of the UK’s Digital Services Tax
TaxWatch reflects on the Liberal Democrat proposal to hike Digital Services Tax